


It runs in the family

by DarkValkyrie



Category: Fantasy - Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Dragons, Fantasy Creatures, Summoning, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:33:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22941049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkValkyrie/pseuds/DarkValkyrie
Summary: Her whole life Nadia was mistreated and abused because people in the small town she lived in thought she was a witch.She was always good at making potions and herb medicines because she learned it from her mother.When her parents died the only thing they left behind was a book. It had recipes for potions and herbal medicines but it had a whole other chapter.A chapter that runs in the family.





	It runs in the family

The furthest house from the town square was given to Nadia by the small town she was living in. It wasn’t a kind gesture on the town’s part. At first, after her parents died, the townsfolk wanted to banish her into the woods. They were sure she was a witch because ever since she was a little girl, she had a gift for making potions, herbal medicines and preferred the company of animals. The only reason she wasn’t banished from the town and given the house was because of mayor Aiden, he defended her because he was a good friend of her parents and always did right by them. As a skilled politician, as he was, reminded the townsfolk that they needed her potions and herbal medicines and if they banish her, they will lose it all. The townsfolk agreed to let Nadia stay in town but still, they didn’t like her. They only came to her to buy medicine. 

One day, while walking through the woods, collecting herbs, Nadia heard a commotion near her. As she got closer, she heard animal noises as if two animals were fighting. Curious she hurried towards the sounds and saw a wolf attacking a small fox. Her mother told her to never meddle in nature’s business, but as she stood there, she saw that the fox had no chance of surviving the fight. Looking around she found a big branch, stood between the wolf and the fox and started to wave the branch at the wolf. Yelling and swinging the branch scared of the wolf. As she turned around, she saw the little fox laying on the ground. It’s body full of cuts, bites and blood. She picked up the poor little thing and carried it to her home.

At home, Nadia cleaned the blood off as much as she could, put medicine on the injuries and wrapped them in cloth. The small fox was a girl, it had beautiful gray fur with a black spot here and there and big ears. Thinking that there could be something else she could do, she opened a book, the only thing her mother left her, to see if there was anything on treating wounds severe like this. As she read through the pages, she didn’t find anything that she didn’t already know. When she got to the end of the book with the pictures of creatures like dragons, golems, other kinds of strange creatures and words she didn’t understand she closed the book and went to check on the injured fox.

Over the next couple of days, Nadia managed to make the fox drink a few rejuvenating potions and saw improvement on the injuries, the medicine worked well. On the sixth day, the fox had the strength to move, so it explored the house a bit and after she got tired, she lay on Nadia’s lap and fell asleep. That night they both slept in the chair.

While the fox recovered, Nadia made some toys for her so she doesn’t get bored and starts to mess around with the things in the shop or the house. When there were no customers Nadia spent almost all day preparing the potions and medicines and playing with the fox. But it felt kind of weird to call her just fox so she gave her a name, Mai.

Mai loved the toys Nadia made for her and, although she was injured, she still played rough. She was cunning too, her favorite game was hide and seek. A game where Nadia would hide all the toys all around the house and Mai had to find them all. Another of her favorite games was the guessing game, especially because there was food involved. The game was simple, Nadia rubbed both of her hands with the food snack, so Mai couldn’t guess where the snack is by smell, and put both hands in front of Mai. Each time Mai guessed the hand with the snack Nadia gave it to her, but each time she missed the guessing process started again. The game lasted until Mai jumped on Nadia and stole all the food snacks. 

After two weeks Mai was well enough to come with Nadia to the town’s market. The market was held in the main square and it was there only in the morning. It was held there because the town square was the biggest place in town, it was in the center of town, it was oval-shaped and all the main roads lead to it. While walking through the market, Nadia watched where Mai was. With so many people in the market, she was afraid that Mai would get scared and run away, but Mai was following her pace, walking next to her right side. 

Nadia felt that something was different in the market today. She looked at the townsfolk in the market and saw them watching Mai and her with frowning faces, pointing at them, whispering. She pretended not to see the looks and the whispers, hurried to buy what she needed so she and Mai can get away from this place as soon as possible. She stopped at the fruit sellers stands, the stand where she always bought fruit, and started to pick the fruit. As soon as she did that the merchant slapped her hand, making the fruit fall out of her hand, and yelled. “I aint sellin nothin to a witch!”

Taken aback Nadia looked at the merchant and said. “I am not a witch. What has gotten into you? I always buy fruit from you.”

“You can take yourself and yer familiar with ya. I aint selling to you any more witch.” The merchant said.

“Yeah! Get out of here you witch! You and your familiar.” Another merchant yelled.

“We don’t want the likes of you in our town anymore!” Yet another man yelled.

All of a sudden people in the market started yelling and cursing at Nadia, calling her a witch, telling her to leave the town, telling her they don’t want a witch in her town. They thought that Mai was her familiar. Familiars were animals that lived with witches but didn’t do things like normal pets did, like cats hunting mice or dogs protecting herds or homes. The commotion at the market place got worse as other townsfolk started to join the mob. Hearing the commotion, mayor Aiden walked out on to the balcony overlooking the town square and saw the mob of townsfolk yelling at Nadia, he hurried down and passed through the mob to the place where Nadia was standing.

Nadia told mayor Aiden what happened and he turned around to the mob of townsfolk. So many angry faces, tight grips around wooden bars, frowns and looks of disgust looked at mayor Aiden while he tried to calm them down and explain that it was all a big misunderstanding. After his speech, the townsfolk calmed down and went back to their stands, still believing that Nadia was a witch. She thanked him for his help and hurried home.

‘ _So, I can’t shop in town anymore because of those bigot people._ ’ Nadia thought while looking at Mai playing with one of her toys. ‘ _Well, I’m close to the forest so I can go there and get what I need. And maybe it’s time to let Mai back into the forest._ ’ Tomorrow when she goes into the forest to collect herbs and food shell take Mai with her and let her go her own way. She sat down on the floor, called Mai over and hugged her as tightly as she could. “Mai you are going into the forest with me tomorrow. Your injuries are healed and you are strong now, stronger and smarter than any wolf. In the forest, you’ll be free, you’ll meet other foxes like you and who knows, maybe you’ll find a husband.” She said to Mai with a sad smile on her face. 

The next day Nadia got dressed in her forest clothes, grabbed her basket and got out of the house. Mai was used to her going away but this time Nadia didn’t close the door. She called Mai to come with her. Mai tilted her head to the right, eyes wide open, still laying on the floor. She called her again so Mai got up and with a happy bounce in her step went through the door. 

As they reached the forest Nadia collected herbs, mushrooms, berries and all the things that were edible while Mai sniffed around coming and going out of sight. She felt pain in her chest, she has gotten used to having Mai keeping her company in the house and now she had to let her go back to the forest. Tears started forming in her eyes as she thought about how much she would miss her. Mai came to her carrying a rabbit in her mouth. Mai put the rabbit next to her and started bouncing around her and the rabbit ah thou she was proud of herself.

After Mai calmed down Nadia looked at her and decided that it was time to let her go free, to let her go into the forest. From the basket, she took one of Mai’s toys and said. “Let’s play hide and seek. I’ll hide this and you find it. Stay here and no peeking.” Mai sat down and she left to hide the toy. 

A long way away was an old fallen tree, Nadia hid the toy inside it and came back to Mai. “Go. Find it.” She said and Mai started to sniff around to find the toys scent. While Mai was finding the toy, she turned towards the town and headed home, tears rolling down her face. 

Sitting in the kitchen, Nadia was surrounded by silence. It never bothered her before but now that silence clawed at her brain. She sat in the kitchen for a while remembering all the dumb and smart things Mai did as the tears were running down her face. To distract herself from these thoughts she walked over to the basket and started to empty it. After that, she made and ate dinner, collected the toys she made for Mai and put them in a box. She couldn’t just throw them away, she felt that it was too soon to get rid of them. 

As Nadia started to get ready for bed, she heard scratching on the front door. At first, she thought it was a stray cat but when she opened the door she saw Mai, holding the toy she hid. Mai entered the house, put down the toy and waited for her reward.

“No Mai. You had to stay in the forest. You belong there, not here with me.” Nadia said but Mai came closer to her and nudged her hand. Nadia relented, went to the kitchen, grabbed a snack and gave it to Mai. After that, she opened the door and told Mai to go out and to the forest. Mai tilted her head first to the left hen to the right, turned around and lay down in front of the fireplace. Nadia closed the door and accepted that Mai chose her over freedom of the forest. Looking at the sleeping Mai actually made her feel relieved, the silence was gone and life got back to normal.

A few weeks later, late in the afternoon, Nadia was studying the book her mother left her. She was trying to decipher the words next to the images of the creatures and on the last page, she found a three-letter word. It turned out that that word was a code for deciphering the text on the pages with the creatures. As soon as she found that out she deciphered all of the pages and each page was a spell to summon the creature drawn on the page. 

There was a page to summon ferries who help clean the house so Nadia read the summoning spell and a ferry appeared. As soon as it appeared it started cleaning the house. The first thing it did was use its magic to lift up Mai, put her down in a bucket of water and wash her. Restricted by magic Mai couldn’t escape, she just waved her paws and cried for help. Nadia tried several times to give Mai a bath so this was a dream come true for her.

Over the next couple of weeks, Nadia went into the forest and practiced summoning and releasing other creatures like dragons, golems, elementals and alike and at first, she wasn’t very good at it. The first time she summoned a dragon it nearly burnt down a big part of the forest, her first golem made a meadow in a place where a thick forest was and her firs ice elemental gave her a cold. But she kept practicing and as time went her ability to control the summoned creatures improved and her command of their powers got better. While she was practicing, once in a while, she summoned one of the smaller creatures so Mai could play with them. She was happy she found another favorite game for Mai. 

After almost a year she was getting really good at summoning and controlling the summoned creatures. One late afternoon, while she was studying the book and the summoning words, she heard a commotion coming from the town. For her to hear a commotion, in the last house in town, there had to be something serious going on. She got dressed, took the book with her and headed towards the town square together with Mai.

As Nadia came closer to the town square, she saw a crowd gathered in the square and the streets. The crowd stood in a circle around a man dressed in black, with animal and human skulls hanging on his waist and a black staff in his right hand. She stood at the edge of the crowd and asked the people around her what was going on.

“That devil came into the town and he’s asking for twenty people to sacrifice themselves.” One of the men said.

“Yeah! And if nobody agrees to sacrifice themselves to be his slave, he said he’s gonna start killing people one by one. That’s what he said.” Another man said.

“He wants twenty people to volunteer to be killed and be his slaves or he’ll start killing people in the town. Alright, let’s see if he can.” Nadia said and she and Mai started moving through the crowd of people to the middle of the square where the man dressed in black stood. As she pushed her way through, she stepped out towards the man, stared at him for a while and said. “Get out of our town. We don’t like your kind here.”

The man looked at her and the fox by her feet with his eyebrows raised and said. “Oh, we have our first volunteer to be a slave. Not much muscle on ya but you will do.”

“I’m not volunteering. I’m telling you to get lost. Leave our town at once.” Nadia said and herd whispering in the crowd.

“You dare speak to me like that you piece of flesh. I am the great necromancer Zell the Diabos!” The man said.

“I don’t care who you are, I only care that you leave this town. If you don’t there will be consequences.” Nadia said, standing in front of him, holding her ground.

“You fool! You don’t know what you have done! I will kill you in seconds for your blasphemous words.” Zell started chanting and as he chanted from the ground started to rise four lifeless white bodies. 

Nadia took her book and opened the page with the dragon picture. She read the words twice and in a matter of a few seconds, two dragons landed on the town square. They started circling around Zell in the middle of the square and the lifeless white bodies. While circling them they were snarling and spitting small breaths of fire as they looked at Zell and the bodies as if they were prey. Mai hid behind Nadia’s legs, just peeking through and watching the much bigger dragons. 

One of the dragons had silver scales, big twisted horns, wings, if stretched out, tall as a three-story building and sharp double-lined scales starting from his head and ending as the tip of his tail like a sharp blade. The other dragon had red and black scales, a lot of black horns different sizes that adorn his head, wings majestic as the other dragon and a tail full of sharp black horns. Both of them were big as a normal size house, but they moved with such elegance and grace that each of their movements was a marvelous sight to be seen.

“Eat.” Nadia said and each dragon ate two of the lifeless white bodies, leaving Zell alone in the middle of the square, surrounded by two very hungry dragons.

“You witch! How dare you deceive me like this.” Zell said.

“I’m not a witch. This just runs in the family. Now, will you leave our town or do I have to feed my dragons again?” Nadia asked.

“No witch can defeat me. I am one of the most powerful necromancers in the world.” Zell said and started a new chant. This time a rock golem started rising from the earth.

Before the golem arose completely Nadia quickly said. “Eat.” The dragons listened and they both bit half of Zell’s body and tore him apart. With Zell dead, the golem descended back down in to the ground. She called the dragons over to her, pet them on the head and with a smile on her face said. “Good job guys.” She said the words to release them from the summoning and watched them fly away.

When they disappeared out of sight Nadia turned around to go home but forgot that she was surrounded by a crowd of people. She looked at people’s faces full of wide-open eyes, raised eyebrows and open mouths. Some of them were opening and closing their mouths like they wanted to say something or rubbing their eyes, not believing what they just saw. But the whole square, packed with a crowd of people all staring at Nadia, was enveloped in silence. 

Now, Nadia was sure that the townsfolk would proclaim her a witch and banish her from the town, but mayor Aiden stepped out of the crowd and walked over to her. He thanked her for saving the people and the town and shook her hand. He turned around towards the crowd and said. “We should all be grateful on this day that Nadia was here to protect us. If she wasn’t here some or many of you would lose your brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters or sons. Thankfully this did not happen because amongst us is a hero who selflessly stepped out in front of the danger and protected us all, we have amongst us a true hero. Hurrah for Nadia!” 

As he finished his speech the crowd started cheering Nadia’s name. Nadia just stood in the square and looked at mayor Aiden as if she was standing next to a magician. He was really good at his job and manipulating the situations. He caught her staring at him and quietly said. “You are a witch no more, you are a hero. Good job.”

“Good job. It was all your doing. I was sure that the townsfolk would run me out of town after this.” Nadia whispered to mayor Aiden.

“Thank me later.” Mayor Aiden whispered. “And you have to tell me how you did that stunt with the dragons.”

“Deal. Just get me out of here.” Nadia whispered back and mayor Aiden gave another speech about family and friends and how the people should leave and spend the rest of the day with their loved ones. After his speech, the crowd dispersed rather quickly and Nadia thanked him once again for saving her from being proclaimed a witch. She promised him she will take him with her the next time she goes practicing the summons, they said their goodbyes and she and Mai headed home.

At home, Nadia sat in a chair and continued to study the summoning words and Mai jumped into her lap. Once again, they both slept in the chair that night.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :)  
> Every comment is welcome


End file.
